Glossary / Notes

Reading Seven (From the chapter room to the cloister, and Terce)

After the service of the masses has been regulated, the weekly officials and the obedientaries, after
investigating the current affairs, should acknowledge the daily aberrations. The brothers, in whatever
manner they may have committed an offense, shall acknowledge their faults in the presence of the
others; those, however, who do not do so shall be punished more severely. If, however, the day of some
great feast has dawned, after all the brothers have been gathered together, the prior of the order or someone of the brothers to
whom he has given an order, should give a sermon of exhortation. Secular persons, however, must not be
admitted there unless by permission of the prior of the order.

When all of these things have been completed, the prior shall begin the psalms and those going out from the chapter shall come in order
into the cloister, and when they have settled in an
orderly manner, the weekly priest
shall say the
Benedictus
(the "Canticle of Zacharias" from Luke) to them. But if it is a day of fasting, Terce is to be sung before the
Benedictus
. Then they shall sit in the cloister each by
himself, each holding a book, and there they shall speak
in a moderate voice and not loudly, and only about useful and proper things. Whereby they shall not
impede those who want to read or study, especially in the presence of the juniors, with whom nobody should talk, unless it
is their teacher or one of his men speaking
appropriately about the edification or the salvation of their soul. When a junior is sent to speak with someone outside the cloister, he should not go alone, nor should anyone untrustworthy go alone outside the cloister.